News -
Norway’s new National Museum to open in Oslo on 11 June 2022
Norway’s National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design has announced its much-awaited opening date, 11 June, 2022.
Norway’s new National Museum will be the largest art museum in the Nordic region.
As early as this summer, visitors can enter the building for early access guided tours.
– We are inviting visitors to join us and have a look inside while the art is being mounted and the museum is taking shape, says Karin Hindsbo, Director of the National Museum.
Organised, prebooked tours free of charge will be available as soon as local coronavirus restrictions are lifted, thus allowing visitors into selected parts of the interior, including exhibition rooms and the exterior of the brand new building designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk.
5000 works of art and a glowing exhibition hall
With the new National Museum, Norway gets a unique space for the country’s most extensive collection of art, architecture and design. More than 5000 works, from the antiquity to the museum’s most recent contemporary acquisitions, will be on display in a collection exhibition that spans two floors and almost 90 rooms. The building also includes a spectacular space for temporary exhibitions - the Light Hall situated on the roof - as well as a large open-air roof terrace, cafés, a shop, and the largest art library in the Nordic region. Situated on Oslo’s harbour close to the promenade, the museum is centrally located and offers spectacular views of the city.
The museum is designed by German architects Kleihues + Schuwerk and built by Norway’s government building commissioner Statsbygg. Designed with the perspective of housing artworks for centuries, the museum is built with clean and robust materials that will age with dignity, such as oak, bronze and marble. The entire facade of the museum is covered with Norwegian slate. As a FutureBuilt pilot project, the building is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to current building standards.
Exhibition programme coming soon
On permanent display works from all the National Museum’s various fields – older and modern art, architecture, design, craft and contemporary art – will meet and interact in new contexts.
The museum’s collection holds around 400,000 objects ranging from medieval tapestries to modern design classics and contemporary artworks. There will be rooms dedicated to the museum’s significant collection of works by Edvard Munch, including «The Scream», 19th century landscape painting, royal gowns worn by Norway’s two queens, and a display of works by renowned Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn. Prominent artists on display will include Harald Sohlberg, Harriet Backer, Theodor Kittelsen, Gustav Vigeland, Hannah Ryggen, Lucas Cranach, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Ida Ekblad.
For the opening, the Light Hall will be filled with an extensive survey of new Norwegian Contemporary art featuring almost 150 artists and artist groups of all ages and covering all the museum’s fields.
The full programme for the opening year will be launched later this year.
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About the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
- Opens in Oslo on 11 June 2022.
- Established 2003-2005 with the merger of four museums from the fields of older and modern art, contemporary art, design and craft, and architecture.
- The museum’s collection holds more than 400,000 objects.
- The new building is designed by German architects Kleihues + Schuwerk.
- Total area: 54,600 m2.
- 13,000 m2 exhibition space. Almost twice as much as the museum’s former spaces making it the largest museum in the Nordic region and bigger than international museums such as Rijksmuseum and Guggenheim Bilbao.
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Oslo, fjord city
Oslo is moving forward with its Fjordbyen ('Fjord city') project. Many areas of the Norwegian capital are experiencing major development projects, but the most exciting architectural additions take place by the watefront, contributing to develop new areas for cultural and recreational activities for both locals and visitors.
For decades, the area in front of the Oslofjord has been full of barriers separating the city from the fjord: highways, railways, and closed container ports. It is now being completely transformed. Oslo's new opera house and the Barcode high-rises are already iconic Oslo buildings and are located in Bjørvika.
New boroughs like Tjuvholmen and Sørenga have risen along the fjord. A new seafront promenade now runs through the area and is very popular among locals, together with sauna life, restaurants, shopping areas and hotels like The THIEF and Clarion Hotel Oslo. The Deichman Bjørvika public library opened in June 2020 and the new MUNCH will open on 22 October 2021. Both are located just a few metres from the waterfront.
For press photos and videos of Oslo, visit Visit Norway's content bank and VisitOSLO's image bank.
